Accession No
0830
Brief Description
simple microscope, compass type, 1790 (c)
Origin
Maker
Class
microscopes
Earliest Date
1790
Latest Date
1790
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass, steel); ivory; wood, cloth (velvet); hide (shagreen leather)
Dimensions
bag length 205mm; breadth 115mm; thickness 35mm box length 155mm; breadth 74mm; height 46mm
Special Collection
Robert Whipple collection
Provenance
Purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple from T.H. Court, Harrow, England, in 04/1937.
Inscription
Description Notes
Brass and ivory handle simple compass microscope. Compass joint to blued steel stage forceps. Screw fit objective with large screw fit lieberkuhn. Fitted wooden box, lined with green velvet, and covered with black shagreen.
References
Events
Description
R.S. Whipple had a particular interest in the history of optical instruments, especially microscopes. Over the course of his life Whipple would acquire more than two hundred examples—nearly 20% of the objects in his collection. This is one of them, purchased from T.H. Court in 1937.
08/10/2025
Created by: Hannah Price on 08/10/2025
Description
With this instrument, specimens were held on the point and illuminated by the large silvered mirror which reflected light onto the upper surface of the specimen. This device was invented by Johann Lieberkuhn in about 1740 and became standard equipment for 150 years.
‘Compass’ microscope is a modern term applied to these instruments as a result of their resemblance in construction to a pair of draughtsman compasses. It was called the “small microscope for opaque objects” by Adams (1787), and they were often included in with the accessories of other objects.
01/03/2001
Created by: Corrina Bower on 01/03/2001
FM:42370
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